Do-Gooders Considered Kind of Creepy By the Rest of Us

Washington State social psychologist Craig Parks has been researching unselfish behavior and his study has led him to some depressing conclusions. “It doesn’t matter that the overall welfare of the group is better served by someone’s unselfish behavior,” Parks told the Daily Mail, “What is objectively good, we see as subjectively bad.” That’s right–according to Parks’s research, do-gooders are viewed as “deviant rule breakers.”

Parks ran 4 group tests that appeared to demonstrate that unselfish members of a given group just tended to make others angry. Other members of test groups often wanted the giver ejected. Parks even titled his study, “The Desire to Expel Unselfish Members from the Group.” The upshot is people are either worried the good samaritan in the bunch is breaking rules or “making me look bad.”